October 21, 2021

Graphic by Rachel Taylor

Mara Dumitru is a sophomore journalism student at MU. She is an opinion columnist who writes about fashion and lifestyle for The Maneater.

It is impossible to walk around MU’s campus without seeing remnants of Friday night fun lying around. Broken beer bottles, red solo cups and alcohol miniatures litter every green space MU has to offer. We call ourselves a botanical garden, yet the most our campus has to show for it is plastic trash around every corner. 

MU truly has a fairytale campus. Red brick buildings, large gothic windows and plenty of squirrels, birds and rabbits. Just like how Hansel and Gretel had a trail of breadcrumbs leading them back home, we have trails of red solo cups and broken glass leading us to Greek row. 

Society tries really hard to teach children from a young age that littering is unacceptable. Most often than not, when the children grow up into adults, they retain all of that information, including the harmful effects littering has on our earth, oceans and animals. This goes for MU students as well. Bringing awareness to this issue isn’t the problem — getting students to care is. No amount of infographics and PSAs about recycling will help either. As long as students don’t think about the impact they have on the environment, we won’t see any change on campus. 

Friday night party practices are starting to leave a permanent mark on campus. So much litter is generated every week that sweepers don’t make a difference anymore. Students adopt an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality when it comes to littering. As soon as the trash is out of their hands, it becomes someone else’s problem.

Being in the middle of football season also poses new challenges. With so many tailgates to get to before the game starts, finding a trash can is the last thing on students’ minds. Who has time to toss an empty can in the recycling bin when there are already 30 others in a pile on the floor? Additionally, when we put the same people who don’t care about littering in charge of the cleanup, it’s no big surprise when front lawns are still littered with plastic trash.  

Alumni and students alike come together every weekend to support their school and football team. They wear MIZ shirts and wave around black and gold pompoms to show their school spirit. By the end of the game, those same pompoms end up forgotten somewhere on a lawn. Why doesn’t our campus get the same courtesy as our football team? How can they support one and harm the other? 

“The presence of existing litter was strongly predictive of littering behavior,” social psychologist Wesley Schultz said in an interview with The Allegheny Front. “So if you’re in a place that’s already highly littered, you’re much more likely to litter than if you’re in a place that’s clean or free of litter.” 

MU has a simple problem that requires a simple solution. More recycling and trash bins, especially in areas with high foot traffic from drunk students (see: East Campus, Greek town, downtown area). This would incentivize students to hold onto their bottles for a few steps longer instead of dropping them the second they’re empty. Disposing trash responsibility has to be as easy and pain-free as littering. After all, we’re all college students with the attention spans of kindergartners.

While well-disposed-of trash is better than litter, in the end, it still ends up in a landfill. It’s hard to ask students to give up their red solo cups and aluminum cans for more environmentally friendly options. There are plenty of options out there, ranging from dollar store cups to YETI mugs. As college students can’t seem to be able to hold onto a cup until the next trash bin, the expectations would be a little too high if we asked them to hold onto a tumbler for an entire evening. 

We can’t blame this one on MU — it’s our responsibility as students to keep our own campus as beautiful as we can. There could be trash cans and recycling bins on every street corner, but as long as students don’t care about littering, we’re not going to see a difference.  

The Maneater encourages you to support the Rainforest Foundation US to help fight against climate change. You can make a donation at the following link: https://rainforestfoundation.org/donate/

Edited by Sarah Rubinstein | srubinstein@themaneater.com

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